This article will show three different methods of assigning work orders to technicians based on the calibration discipline assigned to assets. For each of these methods, we are going to be making use of the Work Area field on the Type record.
Before discussing these methods, let's first take a look at the behavior of the Work Area field with regards to work order creation.
There are two Work Area fields in MET/TEAM:
- One found on the Type screen,
- And one on the Work Order screen.
Work Area can be used to assign a calibration discipline to a type, which can be especially useful if your lab has different areas that specialize in these disciplines, or technicians with different areas of expertise.
The fields are represented in the database by the identifiers Types.cArea (for the Type screen) and CallSheets.cArea (for the Work Order screen). These two fields are both drop down lists that have been linked together, meaning if you edit the drop down contents of one of the fields, the changes you make will also be reflected in the drop down of the other field. This relationship can be seen within the Edit Combo Data screen of either of the fields.
Perhaps the most useful aspect of Work Area is that the work order's field will automatically populate upon its creation if the type's field has already been set.
Method 1: Arranging the Work Order Find Screen
The simplest way of utilizing the Work Area field on a work order is by searching for the desired discipline on the work order find screen.
- Go to Workflow -> Work Orders
- Make sure the Remember button is selected
- Click the Add Criteria green plus button
- In the pop up window, choose Work Area. Note: you can click the column header to sort the fields alphabetically.
Once this field has been added to the find screens criteria list, you can then search for work orders based on your preferred discipline.
Method 2: Repurposing the Work Area Field
Another option to utilize this field is to repurpose it so that technician names appear in the drop down instead of disciplines. This transforms the Work Area field into a pseudo-Tech Assignment feature. See the below screenshot and notice that the entries within the drop down have been modified to use technician names.If I selected, say, Bruce Wayne to be "assigned" to the Fluke 87 type, any work orders created for a Fluke 87 will automatically have Bruce Wayne set in the work order's analogous work area field. Combining this method with the first method mentioned above will allow technicians to search for work orders assigned to themselves.
Method 3: Auto-Assigning with a Data Check
A more automated method involves installation of a data check in MET/TEAM. It is a bit more complicated to setup, but it allows you to continue using calibration disciplines in the Work Area field, while still assigning work orders to distinct individuals. Because the assignments are stored in the Assigned Technician field of the work order, it allows users to view their assigned calibrations via the My Work feature in the product.
The one limitation of this data check is that it only supports a single user being assigned to a discipline. If multiple users are assigned to one discipline, the data check will not evenly distribute work orders between the techs, and will instead assign all the work for that discipline to a single user.
Reminder: The Data Checks feature is not available on the Express version of MET/TEAM.
To install, first download and open the text file here:
Once implemented, any work orders created through the receiving screen should have their Assigned Technician field automatically populated, as long as there is a direct map between the user and the discipline defined for the type.